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UC Semester Conversion: See the New Web Site, Check Out the Planning Timeline

The university today launched an updated semester conversion Web site
to serve as the UC semester conversion “one stop” for information. The
site will be continually updated as UC moves closer to converting to
semesters in Fall 2012.

The University of Cincinnati is approximately three years away from the first day of classes under a semester calendar: Aug. 27, 2012.

Even so, UC today launched an updated and redesigned semester conversion Web site to serve as a “one stop” for information related to semester conversion. It is designed to serve the long-term needs of campus and community as planning continues toward the August 2012 conversion date.

An image of UC's new semester conversion home page.

In all, 20 Ohio institutions – both two-year and four-year colleges and universities – will switch from the quarter academic calendar to the semester academic calendar as part of The University System of Ohio’s ten-year Strategic Plan for Higher Education. State leaders have called for a uniform academic calendar to help provide consistency across the state’s public higher education institutions and allow for smooth transfer of credit from campus to campus.

UC successfully switched from semesters to quarters in 1964, and planning is already underway for the return to semesters in 2012. The work of conversion is being led by the UC Semester Conversion Steering Committee co-chaired by Kristi Nelson, senior vice provost, and Bill Whitaker, senior associate dean, College of Business.

FIRST-PHASE PLANNING: CURRICULAR REVISIONSMost of the current preparation work toward converting to semesters is invisible to students and the general public. Currently, UC faculty in every department and college are working on revising university courses – currently offered on the quarter system – so that these offerings and their content will cohesively fit into a semester calendar, with each course offering integrating with others across disciplines, majors, departments and colleges.

According to UC Provost Anthony Perzigian, “The conversion from quarters to semesters presents a historic and unique opportunity to make fundamental and transformative changes” to the university’s academic programs. When coupled with program review, he said, conversion will result in a modernized curriculum and streamlined degree requirements.

Currently, under the quarter system, UC has an inventory of about 15,000 courses. About 3,000 of these have been rarely or never offered in the last three years. When the university converts to semesters, it’s estimated the university will offer about 10,000 courses that have been comprehensively reviewed in terms of integration with other coursework to effectively and efficiently meet the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s workforce, industry and community needs.

The tools currently being used by faculty to conduct this work are to be found on UC’s redesigned Semester Conversion site, under the Faculty/Staff navigation links at the top and left side of the Semester Conversion home page.

The timeline for redesigning UC’s curriculum by faculty calls for completion of the bulk of that work by Fall 2010.

SECOND-PHASE PLANNING: ENCODING AND CATALOGINGOnce the curriculum is revised to meet future academic needs, behind-the-scenes encoding and cataloging of the new curriculum will get fully underway. This work will be complete by September 2011.

At the same time, training of student advisors will be ongoing in anticipation of the final phase of preparation for conversion to semesters.

THIRD-PHASE PLANNING: STUDENT ADVISINGFrom September 2011 through August 2012, UC student advisors in each department and college will meet with those students who will transition from quarters to semesters.

It is expected that every student who will transition from quarters to semesters will meet individually with an academic advisor to formulate an Individual Advising Plan (IAP). So long as a student adheres to that plan, safeguards are already in place in the Pledge to Students.

These are

No loss of academic progress.

No delay in degree completion.

No increased cost in degree completion due to semester conversion. (UC’s Board of Trustees may implement annual tuition increases as deemed necessary.)

In March 2012, students will begin registering for Fall 2012 courses.

Visit UC’s redesigned semester conversion Web site for more information as the university prepares for the new academic calendar to begin Aug. 27, 2012.